Aim For The Heart: July 2008

I had a good time in Galveston this weekend. A friend of my parents let them borrow his condo, and they, me and Joe, and my sister-in-law, a friend of hers, and three of my nephews all stayed on the island for a long weekend of fun and sun. My not-quite-six-year-old nephew impressed me with his willingness to go pretty far into the ocean on his boogie board. He's usually very cautious and a little skittish, but he was riding the waves better than any of us.

Besides boogie boarding, Joe and I visited Moody Gardens and the Flight Museum, and took a helicopter ride around the island. That was fantastic, even though I'm a) terrified of heights and b) the doors were off of the helicopter. I had a death grip on the bar in front of me.

Though I had fun, I'm not particularly interested in returning. I need to be constantly doing stuff, and Galveston doesn't have enough to keep me interested for more than about a day and a half, especially now that I've see Moody Gardens and the museum. Probably next vacation will be Disney World again, though that will be at least a year and change away.

I've been playing GTA IV for about a week now, and I love it. But like most games, I've uncovered a few things I wish it would do. Maybe some of these things can be done later on once I get deeper into the game, but for now this is my wishlist.

I wish you could buy stuff to decorate the apartment. Don't ask me why I love to do this; I barely decorate my real house.

I wish you could go in more buildings. I see so many buildings I would love to just go inside and look around.

I wish there were fewer cops, but that they stopped you for more things. I can speed, run red lights, ram other cars, cut off other drivers, and the cops ignore me. But hit a cop car, a pedestrian, or shoot a gun, and they're all over my ass. It would also be neat if some of the drivers of the cars you jacked used their cellphones to call the cops. Or onlookers did so. Then it would make the Pay & Sprays even more important.

I wish every phone number in the game worked. I've tried calling numbers I've seen around the city, and none have worked so far.

I wish there were more interactive objects. Newspapers could be read from newspaper stands, dumpsters could be opened, trash cans could be picked up and thrown. As much interactivity as possible.

I'm sure my list of wants is infinite, but those are the ones I've noticed so far. Still, the game is incredible. The storyline is intriguing, the characters are fantastic and fantastically acted, Niko Bellic is an awesome amoral protagonist, and there are a billion different types of cars to steal.